ROUND 6: White Acres (1st February 2004) Top scoring Newtown boys rock the boat Winning team: Team Newtown (26 points)
Due to some minor adjustments in the original league plan, today’s round 6 was to be fished at Whiteacres instead of Bolingey – something I didn’t mind even one little bit as Bolingey this winter has proven itself to be extremely peggy.
As per usual, the draw took place in the Whiteacres shop. The 3 sections today were spread over Lamorna (A), Bodriggy (C) and Caerleon (B). I was really looking forward to things as I hadn’t fished any of these newer lakes before, and Bodriggy had only just been stocked. With a few thousand pounds of small carp and half a ton of silvers, it was a real unknown; but definitely looked inviting.
Last to draw and out popped peg 3. With our next ‘official’ Whiteacres match here again in 2 weeks when I was going to be fishing Lamorna, I opted to fish it today as well to have a little practise. Section peg 3 gave me permanent peg 6. Not an out and out flier I was told, but it looked ok to me. With an island at 25m and a nice easy depth of about 5 feet down the middle between 8 and 11m, I was planning a nice simple day. The one I had to watch, Barry Little (Team Newtown) was on permanent peg 10, just around the corner from me on my right. With only one point separating our teams, our only aim today was make up at least that one point.
It had been quite chilly in the week previously so I wasn’t expecting to catch much close in in the shallower water, even though reports suggest that it can be productive when the water is warmer. I just didn’t want to over complicate things. Along with that, I had a light groundbait feeder set up to fish to the island, which in retrospect, may have been a mistake. With the wind of my back and some nice calm water in front of me, I should have been brave enough to fish the wag. I’m actually better than average with a float rod in my hand, and I DID have the time to set one up; only God knows why I didn’t.
On the whistle I cupped in 3 balls of groundbait and caster at 11m, and went out on the feeder. This is where I noticed my mistake. Not the groundbait, but the feeder. After a couple of small carp, it was noticeable that the fish weren’t really taking it that eagerly. Archenemy Barry Little HAD set up the waggler and was catching well. I had fish in front of me, but the extra sensitivity of the waggler I do believe would have kept me in touch with Barry at this point, and it could have cost me.
Switching soon to the pole, I was in to fish straight away. Mainly small carp to start, averaging about 8oz, but with the odd roach thrown in for good measure. Barry was still catching faster on the wag though.
With the forecast rain doing well to hold off, I soon started to get in to a rhythm, feeding maggot or caster every chuck, with the odd ball of groundbait, I was putting a few fish in the net. I had expected more carp, but had a couple of nice skimmers, a fair few small tench and some half-decent roach as well – nice mixed fishing. The soft 10 elastic I had opted for was a little OTT, but I wasn’t sure what to expect at first, and it wasn’t really causing any major problems, apart from the inevitable loss of a few small roach on the barbless hook.
After 2 hours, Stuart Athay (Atlantic Tackle) on permanent peg 2 was having his elastic stretched on a regular basis, along with Barry on peg 10 who was still on the wag. These were obviously the two leading us all on at this point. I was also having to keep my eyes on Mark Hamlyn (O. B. Joyfuls) and E. Trinder (MKM) pegged either side of me who were also catching; more slowly than me, but they seemed to be catching carp more consistently.
On the far side, I could occasionally see Del Coleman (Plymouth A.C.) catching a few, yet suprisingly Mike Yates (Newtown Angling) seemed to be lagging behind a little.Then the heavens opened… Bl**dy h*ll! Don’t you just hate it when your brolly doesn’t want to stay still and the gusty wind means you get wet anyway, no matter how much time you spend trying to find the perfect angle? My sorrows went out to those pegged on the far side though as the strong wind and pelting rain splatting them from all head-on angles. No chance of getting a brolly up for those guys. Just wait, that’ll be me on the next round! Sigh!
Like clockwork, 5 minutes before the whistle the old guy in the sky flicked the switch and off went the wet stuff. I had continued to catch ’til the end, taking a lot of small fish, but then again, I was only fishing a single maggot. Whether I had enough to catch any of the front runners, or even enough to beat ANYONE, I had to wait and see – after having been hunched under my collapsing brolly for the last 2 and a half hours, I couldn’t be sure.
Come weigh time, a problem with our section’s scales meant that I had a chance to head on over to Bodriggy to take some piccys, and borrow theirs.
On arrival, reports were that John Wilson (Team Newtown) had emptied it. On weighing just over 11.58kg, his net had maybe not lived up to expectations, but was a weight good enough to take the section. Only just though as Newtown Angling’s Phil Watters, wasn’t far behind with 11.01kg, disappointed that he’d lost a couple of fish that would have swung it in his favour. Consistent Chris (Phoenix) put in a last hour sprint finish to take 8.06 kg and third, keeping himself on top of the individual tree, just 1 point ahead of Phil, and 2 ahead of myself (as I will reveal in a second). Further weights were close, but Mike Bennetts (MKM) squeezed out a fourth with 7.12kg. Pole reigned supreme on Bodriggy with maggot being the top bait.
My teammate on Bodriggy, (Pete Mawby) unfortunately struggled through no fault of his own at the opposite end of the lake to the top 3 weights, and managed to collect just 2 points for us. Please bear in mind here that it was Team Newtown that we had to keep in touch with – and who does section winner John fish for??………hmmm!
Back to Lamorna, and as the scales travelled the lake, Del Coleman was the first to record a decent weight, putting 8.91kg on the scales, mostly taken on the waggler and maggot to the island. Well done that man! – considering the wind and rain he had to put up with! Working our way round, it was soon Barry’s turn. Helped by a 4lb carp, he emptied 12.94kg on to the scales. I was confident that I would weigh at least 9kg, but knew I didn’t have quite that much. After E. Trinder put 6.47kg on the board, my net went 11.66kg, a weight that would be enough for 3rd in section, behind Barry, we had lost another point to Team Newtown.
The praise of the day though must go to Stuart Athay (Atlantic Tackle), who fishing the open water in front of peg 2 caught well all day on the pole with maggot to take 14.87kg of mainly carp.
Back at the car park, it was the section on Caerleon that I was now interested in. Alan Roberts had finished off a super fine day for the Team Newtown boys taking the section on long pole and maggot – weighing 9.34kg. 26 points in total for them (from a possible 27), this could be a dull day for us in terms of league position. My biggest nightmare was made reality when I heard that team mate Bob Noble had finished…….. wait for it …….yup!……. last!
A total of 11 points for us puts us a further 15 points behind. NOT GOOD! Newtown Angling now also have reason to be worried, as Team Newtown are now only 6 points behind them. Still, its good to see things are so close. Second on the day behind Team Newtown were Atlantic Tackle with 18 points, and in third were current league leaders Newtown Angling.
In conclusion, everyone caught today, and few, if any caught less than 10lb of fish. I think maggot has been the only bait I have mentioned, and certainly in our section on Lamorna, it was all that caught I believe.
Report by Ben Field (Mid Cornwall Angling)
Round 7
Return of the norm Winning team: Newtown Angling (24 points)
Yep, back to the norm as Newtown Angling take yet another win in the Real Cornwall League. Is there no stopping these guys?! The answer after round 7 with only 2 more to go, is most probably “NO”, but perhaps with a little draw fixing and some rather ‘accidental’ accidents in the team members homes, we can all still make a comeback. With 2 section wins today from overall winner Graeme Curnow and Phil Watters, their only dropped points came from Mike “don’t listen to a word I ever say cos the chances are I’ve most definitely got at least 20lb more than I’ve just told you I have” Yates, who took section 4th on Lamorna.
Following a week of warm mild weather, I was expecting this round to fish much better than 2 weeks previously. As I mentioned in the last report, I was today fishing Lamorna again. With very little wind, all of the lakes looked idyllic and reports were that Sycamore in particular had thrown up a couple of very big weights recently from the ‘gap’ pegs.
The draw was going to be important. The ‘gap’ pegs really were where you needed to be on Sycamore, and on a calm day like this, Pollawyn and Lamorna were going to be fairly even anyway. So it was section pegs 3 or 8 we wanted to pull from the bag.
Plymouth’s Del Coleman should perhaps have saved his lucky drawing hand for himself when first in to the bag he pulled a peg for Newtown Angling… PEG 3!!! No no no no Del!!! This put Graeme Curnow on the near-side permanent peg 5 – right in to the gap – he was a definite favourite. The O.B.Joyfuls drew Peg 8, and Simon Final had access to the ‘gap’ fish from the far side – he would be another favourite. With those 2 gone before I even drew, we were left with peg 7. Very average, but as long as the team did enough against all of the other average pegs, we would be ok.
Down on Lamorna, Barry Little’s Team Newtown team had drawn peg 1 (Lamorna’s permanent peg 2 for Barry). This peg had won the leagues last 2 matches on the venue, so I would have put money on him winning it as he did well on the lake last time out from a lesser peg. I was on permanent peg 14.
First and best thing I did was setting up the waggler. Learning from my mistake in the last round when I didn’t set it up, history was not going to be repeating itself on me today. Also having a couple of pole rigs ready for a couple of lines at 6 and 11m, if the wind stayed down I was looking for about 30lb at least for a good section place.
On the whistle, in went some groundbait, corn and caster on the pole line, and out went the wag with a bit of corn. With is being so shallow up tight to the island I started about 2m back off of it in about 3 feet of water, and it also meant that if the fish got cagey, I could move closer to keep catching. After about a minute, I hooked my first fish – a small pasty of about 8oz. To my surprise, these fish continued coming. I was catching well, feeding just a little hemp and a few grains of corn each cast. On the down side (for me at least), Plymouth A.C.s Del Coleman was fishing like a man possessed and having a VERY good day. While my bites slowed he was absolutely flying with fish after fish for about the first one and a half hours.
I could not see Barry on peg 2, but Stuart Athay (Atlantic Tackle and ‘bait man’ – gave us all a worry by arriving late with half the lakes bait orders), was catching well from section peg 9 (permanent 18), as was Rod Stokes (Looe A.C.) on permanent peg 8 using waggler and 16m pole.
As the match progressed, with nothing but the odd small tench and roach taking corn and maggot on the pole line, I stayed on the wag, chopping and changing until I managed to get them going REALLY tight to the island. Fishing in 8 inches of water as tight to the island as I could get it, I went through an hour-long spell of slightly larger carp. I use the term ‘larger’ loosely, as the difference is only ounces, bearing in mind that 95% of the fish in here are less than a pound anyway.
Eventually I came back away from the island again as things slowed. I figured it out a bit late, but took a few fish on this in the last 20 minutes.
On the whistle, Mike Yates (permanent peg 6) complained that he’d had a bad day catching only 40 fish, MOSTLY ROACH (cough cough cough!!!!), while insisting that Rod Stokes had walked it after bagging all afternoon on 16m pole using corn and caster – Chris White (Phoenix) backed him up on this, so maybe Mike does have a truthful bone somewhere in his body (before anybody worries – I am only playing :)?????
As the scales did their lap of the lake, Stuart Athay was first to weight putting 10.67kg on the board, mostly caught on the waggler and he did lose a lump. I lose one too actually but I think it was foul hooked (so I obviously would have put it back anyway :). My fish went 14.41kg, 1kg over my target. Del Coleman had slowed during the rest of the match, but his waggler and feeder, corn caught fish were enough for 12.65kg, and with Barry admitting to only 9kg, Del looked good for decent points.
I wanted to beat Chris White on permanent peg 10 as not only are his team behind us in fourth, but he is currently leading the individual table, 2 points ahead of me. Weighing 10.22kg of mostly small fish taken on the pole and eventually waggler, with enough luck today may be my day.
With Rod Stokes weighing next, although his fish were smaller than mine, he certainly made up for it in numbers. Fishing a good match he weighed 16.8kg and was most certainly going to take the honours.
‘Liar liar pants on fire’ Mike Yates was up next, and his estimated 7kg magically turned in to 12.25kg when he lifted his 40 waggler and pole caught CARP clear of the water. With HONEST Barry Little weighing close on his estimate with 9.93kg, Mike couldn’t contain his excitement and I could tell by the big grin on his face, he very nearly wet himself. The top 2 league places are currently quite close between these 2 teams, and with at least a few anglers between these two, Newtown Angling had made good ground on Lamorna. I had done enough for second.
The other lakes had fished well also.
Sycamore was indeed won by Graeme Curnow who fishing a groundbait feeder to the gap, took 10 carp to 9lb on maggot and weighed 28.88kg. Simon Final had also fished the feeder but with corn from the other side of the gap and claimed second place with 25.54kg of similar sized fish. Alan Roberts (Team Newtown) had fished an excellent match from unfancied peg 1 and took 15.89kg of mainly roach on the pole. In fourth place was Plymouth A.C’s R.Aitken with 15.78kg of margin caught carp on corn.
Pollawyn also fished well, or better than previous rounds here at least. Phil Watters (organiser and superstar) took his third section win of the league so far with 14.3kg of silver fish taken on a 3m pole and caster from permanent peg 18. Phil claiming that the best thing that happened to him was losing his feeder rig in the first half hour on the island – letting him get his head down on the pole. Looe A.C’s S. Snipe followed suit, taking 13.7kg from the next peg. Only Geoff Chatfield (Phoenix) managed any carp, taking 2 in his 11.69kg bag – he nabbed the 7 points for 3rd. Dave Davies (O.B.Joyfuls) took 4th spot with 8.91kg.
Team honours on the day went to Newtown Angling with 24 points from the 29 available. Second went to Looe A.C. for their sterling performance totalling 19 points. Third and fourth were decided on weight as a tie on 16 points occurred with O.B. Joyfuls and Plymouth A.C. The O.B. Joyfuls came out on top however, with a total weight of 41.91kg to Plymouth’s 33.45kg.
If you hadn’t noticed, I have yet failed to mention my own team – Mid Cornwall Angling. Well…. Bob unfortunately managed only 4 points on Sycamore, and Pete took just 2 from Pollawyn. A total of 14 for us on the day leaves a long way behind the leaders obviously, but at least we finished ahead of Phoenix who managed only 12. So there’s no need to worry guys. The third place will be ours – I hope.
See you all at Porth in a couple of weeks.
Report by Ben Field (Mid Cornwall Angling)
For more details of results, team and individual standings visit the Real Cornwall Website.
